Celebrate the Bullet

Celebrate the Bullet
Studio album by the Selecter
Released	27 February 1981 (1981-02-27)
Recorded	October 1980
Studio	Horizon Studios (Coventry)
Genre	Ska 2 tone new wave
Length	42:29
Label	Chrysalis
Producer	Roger Lomas the Selecter
The Selecter chronology
Too Much Pressure (1980) Celebrate the Bullet (1981) The Happy Album (1994)
Singles from Celebrate the Bullet
"Celebrate the Bullet" Released: 1981 "Facing Situations" Released: 1981 (Spain-only release)

Celebrate the Bullet is the second studio album by English 2 tone ska revival band the Selecter, released on 27 February 1981 by Chrysalis Records after the band had left the 2 Tone label. The album was recorded with producer Roger Lomas, who plays bass on some songs, and frequently seeks a more slow, eclectic sound, with new wave influences. Band members Charley Anderson and Desmond Brown, uncomfortable with the new approach, left the band during production and after the release of 1980 single "The Whisper" to form the band the People. They were replaced by keyboardist, James Mackie,^[1] and bass player, Adam Williams. Ian Dury and the Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy played bass on the title-track and "Washed Up and Left for Dead".

The album's lyrical content is frequently bleak, taking inspiration from early 1980s racial and social conflicts, economic problems and war. Upon release, the album was a critical and commercial failure. The release of the title track as a single unintentionally coincided with the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, and "at such a time it would have been a brave radio producer who would have earmarked a track titled 'Celebrate the Bullet' for a prime time slot."^[2] As a result, the single and album flopped and the band subsequently broke-up. Nonetheless, the album has more recently been reappraised, and is considered by lead vocalist Pauline Black to be among the band's best work. Captain Oi! Records remastered the album in 2001.